Nappies

[MereDintofPandiculation]

This is a real bugbear of mine. Why do so many people refer to incontinence pads when used by elderly people as “nappies”? You wouldn’t suggest
to a menopausal women with stress incontinence that she wear a nappy, so why is it OK for elderly people? It’s not because it’s easier. It’s just as easy to say “pad” as “nappy”. Part of it is a reflection of the dismissive way we as a society treat the elderly, but it perpetuates that same view of the elderly. Can we just stop doing it?

Agreed. To be honest I've only really come across that on here, but my elderly relative isn't to the point of needing this level of support yet.

Several times I've joked with healthcare staff that there's no dignity in womanhood after the various physical exams I've had over the years, but I agree we should always strive to help people keep what dignity they have.

I've only ever seen it used on this board! IRL HCPs have always called them incontinence pads/pants etc.

I only saw it for the first time ever the other day on a thread here. In terms of design the differences between baby nappies and incontinence pads are blurring, but it's an ugly, infantilising way of describing a medical necessity.

I completely agree. They’re not nappies; they’re incontinence pads / pants.
Similarly, the elderly don’t wear “bibs”, they wear aprons or pinnies.
Its about respect.

Is that a dig at Scoobydo87 for calling adult pads nappies ? Ha ha , dunno why you don’t go direct instead of doing a full on new post

I agree with you @MereDintofPandiculation
Nappies are for babies.
My wife is 76 (the same age as me). She needs to wear incontince pads and we would never call then nappies. We hated the pads the NHS provided and now buy Tena pants. These are designed to be easy to remove by ripping then at both sides. I often say to my wife "come here and I'll rip the knickers pants off you". I'd never usethe term nappy.

It’s a result of being on this board and seeing “nappies” over and over again, from many different posters. If I picked up on it every time I saw it, I’d derail an awful lot of threads

Not sure why you say adults don't wear bibs - they have them at a local (rather messy) restaurant. A bib is not derogatory.

I'm also not sure why nappy is so offensive, my dad has ld's and refers to her pads as nappies, her carers say pad

I agree. The worst time of my life (so far) was when I had to wear big, bulky incontinence pants in hospital, following a very bad stroke. The bloody nurses used to say they were changing my nappy.

There is also a trend of calling the incontinence pants ‘pull ups’. But I really hate the use of the word nappies for adults of whatever age

My mums care home asked what mum would have wanted them to be called.

It was that simple. Mum had always called them pads.
That’s how they always referred to them.

It was a small care home - 15 residents.
one lady called them her ‘special nicks’.

I never heard them called nappies.

I always think of pads as going inside knickers like a sanitary towel. The one's MIL is in are exactly the same as disposable nappies. They did try pads but they didn't work for her.

In my mums case, she started off using the Tena pads in her nicks, but as she progressed, I bought her the Tena nicks.
She often didn’t realise what she had on so continued calling them her pads.

My mum care home tell me when I need to order her ‘special pants’ and/or her pads. She doubles them up. The NHS only provide the ones in the style of ‘nappies’

Agree. Mums carers generically refer to her pads; she actually wears the pants as she wasn’t managing the pads inside her knickers and we refer to them as her Tenas.

there’s so little dignity left in the lives of many of our elderly loved ones, let’s hang on to the tiny scraps of dignity that we can find.